Electronic document editors are widely used in homes and businesses today. Familiar examples of these editors include word processing applications that operate on personal computers (PCs) and note-taking applications that operate on personal data assistants (PDAs). These applications strive to replace paper as the simplest means to record and communicate information. Computer technology provides these applications with advantages over paper, including the capability to search for a word or phrase over a large number of electronic pages of content in a very short period of time and the ability to change format and content of an electronic document at the click of a button.
Electronic document editors may display images and receive commands through a graphical user interface (GUI). A GUI may include a display screen. An electronic document editor may display, along with the content of an electronic document, controls that enable a user to input information into the electronic document or navigate from one point in the document to another. A user may actuate these controls by using a pointing device, such as a mouse or stylus. A common example of such controls is a toolbar with buttons that can be actuated by a user to affect document formatting and style or initiate a macro or another software program.
In developing electronic document editors, a balance must be struck between user-accessible controls shown to a user by a GUI and the overall functionality of the displayed images. A GUI with too few controls may require a user to perform additional steps to input information to the editor, such as using a drop-down menu as compared to a control visible on the GUI display. A GUI with too many controls may result in a smaller viewable image of text and pictures contained in an electronic document or may crowd controls in one location of the display, which may limit the aesthetic or ergonomic quality of the display. This balance could be acutely important for a free-form document editor, which may reside on computer hardware that is designed to be small and portable so as to emulate a traditional notebook of paper. A GUI that could use the same controls for multiple purposes yet be able to readily communicate to a user what function will be performed by actuating the control would help to maximize the usefulness of an electronic document display.
One specific capability that an electronic document editor may have is to allow a user to search for a specific word or phrase in an electronic document through a search routine, in other words, a function of the electronic document editor that enables a user to find the specific word or phrase among the entire content within one or more electronic documents. The editor may display occurrences of the searched word or phrase, also referred to as hits, through a GUI in a manner that distinguishes the word or phrase from surrounding words and phrases. For example, the GUI can highlight the specific occurrences of the searched word or phrase in the electronic document in a color different from the background color of the electronic document display. The electronic document editor may allow the user to navigate through the document to each preceding or successive hit. This navigation may be accomplished by pressing one or more keys on a keyboard or by actuating a control displayed by the GUI using a pointing device. To perform a search, a typical word processor program may open a separate window in response to a user command and this separate window may be capable of accepting the search word or phrase, also referred to as a search term, and have other controls that affect the conduct of the search. This window may have controls that allow the user to navigate to hits of the word or phrase throughout the document.
Some word processing programs have controls on the GUI with multiple functions. For example, WORD, a word processing program developed by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash., uses arrow-like controls that allow a user to move from one page to the next in an electronic document. After a user performs a search, for example by entering a search term into a box that accepts text characters and actuating a search initiation control, the arrow-like controls may enable a user to move to successive hits of that search term. This navigation capability may occur even after a user has closed a separate GUI available for conducting a search, such as a search window. The arrow-like controls may change color to indicate a change in function. One deficiency with this type of multiple-function control is that it is not associated by the GUI with the specific function. In the example of the WORD program, the arrow-like controls are not located near other search controls or otherwise connected by the GUI to the search controls such that the GUI communicates an association with the navigation controls and the search function.
What is needed is a GUI capable of displaying multi-function navigation controls and associating the function of the controls with the basis for the navigation, such as navigating between preceding or successive hits following initiating a search routine in an electronic document.